T-minus 12 hours or so before the the first pick of the NHL draft commences. Nobody will be surprised when Steve Stamkos goes to the Lightning, and other teams in the top 5 make their picks.
After that, there will be plenty of “stunned” and “shocked” teams that couldn’t believe their good fortune that Player X was still available.

The Avalanche has been right up there with the best over the years in this department. Judging from all the wonderful things they said about their top picks over the years, you’d think some of them are just rounding out their Hall of Fame careers right about now.

Just for giggles and grins, I went back and dug up the stories from draft days past, to see what was actually said about many of the Avs’ top picks.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.